Milwaukee Brewers find their offense

After a disappointing four game series at Cincinnati, in which they lost three of those four, the Milwaukee Brewers opened a nine game homestand with a 8-3 win over the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Reds’ starting pitching had been dominant over the weekend, largely silencing Milwaukee’s bats. Last night, though, the Milwaukee Brewers melted their ice-cold bats with an immediate bang.

On the first pitch he saw, Carlos Gomez launched a solo shot to straightaway center field. The very next inning showcased a Martin Maldonado two run blast to left. Khris Davis brought Scooter Gennett home in the fifth on a sacrifice fly. Gomez drove in two more runs on a blooper to shallow right in the sixth, scoring Maldonado and pinch hitter Rickie Weeks. The very next batter, Jean Segura, hit a frozen rope to left to make it a five run Brewers lead.

The hitters were able to take advantage of Arizona’s Mike Bolsinger’s and reliever Randall Delgado’s location problems. The young right-handed starter left plenty of pitches up in the zone, and he was particularly unable to locate his curveball. Delgado just could not catch a break. He managed to walk Rickie Weeks, which is quite an achievement. Gomez’s soft fly ball found the space between second and right field, and his challenging of Segura backfired quite nicely. A day to forget from the man out of the bullpen to be sure, but a fantastic day for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Last night was very encouraging to see. The Reds absolutely stymied the offense over the weekend, and putting together good at-bats last night, either via the long ball or the base on balls, may be the kickstart to a great homestand and a prolonging of the Brewers holding onto the best record in baseball.

I have lingering concerns over Matt Garza and Aramis Ramirez. Garza struggled early, and while he still put up a quality start, he could work on letting less runs cross the plate. His last three frames saved his day, but it was a really bad start to his night. I want to see a much cleaner performance throughout the entire inning, not a train wreck followed by a few redeeming frames and lucking out with plenty of run support.

As for Ramirez, he’s in one heck of a slump. These double plays he’s been grounding into are absolute rally killers. I know this is the kind of Ramirez that usually shows up early in the season, but I was enjoying the red-hot Ramirez to start the year. I’d like him return and contribute to the run column.

But a win’s a win, and at least the offense broke out of its Cincy slump. Let’s hope it continues for the rest of the homestand.

About Ken Kosirowski

Journalism major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Seattle Seahawks, Milwaukee Brewers, and Iowa State correspondent at isportsweb.com. I'm also a radio host on 91.7 FM WSUM Madison. Follow me on Twitter @KenKosirowski